Recently I heard several people describe themselves as Christian and there appears to be some misunderstanding over what a Christian is. Let’s start firstly with what a Christian is not.
A Christian is not someone born into a particular denomination or religion. As someone said once being born in a garage doesn’t make you a car.
A Christian is not someone who goes to church, though many Christians do go to church.
A Christian is not someone who follows a set of rules or beliefs, though being a Christian will affect your choices.
A Christian is not someone baptized or confirmed into a particular denomination
A Christian is not someone who leads a good life and does good works, thinking that will make them right with God and get them into heaven, though again many Christians will do good works.
Being a Christian is not something you inherit from your parents like skin, hair and eye color.
A Christian is someone who is in a relationship – a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is someone who, at some point in their lives made a deliberate choice, a conscious decision that they wanted to follow Jesus and make Him the Lord of their life.
A Christian is someone who has accepted Jesus, the Son of God, died for them and their sins. They realized that there was no way they could earn their way to heaven by doing good things or by following rules or by being born into a particular denomination. They could only be right with God and get to heaven through being in a relationship with Jesus, John 3:16-18, John 14:6. Sooner or later they had to make a choice – to follow Jesus and be in relationship with him or just drift along and not be in relationship.
Being a Christian means getting to know the Lord better and understanding more of His ways. We do this by prayer and through reading His word. It means dedicating your life to Him and serving Him. It means using the gifts He has given you in his service and the building up of his kingdom. It means meeting with other believers to encourage each other as well as to worship God.
As a result of being a Christian, the person may go to church regularly, they may be baptized or confirmed, they may do good works or choose to obey certain rules and make certain choices. But those things do not make them a Christian. They are what results from them being a Christian. Being a Christian is a lifestyle choice, as each day we will face situations that call for us to decide to do our own thing or to follow God’s way.
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